Years ago, before Rick Santorum's primary financial backer joked about aspirin and the inherent immorality of women who use birth control, before the candidate's own remarks on contraception created a controversy, before he became known for bold assertions that Protestants were agents of Satan, before he lost his Senate seat for man-on-dog arguments about homosexuality, the then Senator from Pennsylvania was widely known for attacking a grave threat to Free Enterprise. He went to war against weather reports.

It seems that one night, Senator Santorum stayed up to watch the late news. To his amazed horror, the local television meteorologist put up satellite images and quoted information that came from the National Weather Service. They were using information provided by a government agency, rather than purchasing it from a private business.

Senator Santorum was outraged. He introduced a bill designed to reduce the National Weather Service to issuing reports only after checking to be sure that the same information could not have been produced by private enterprise at fair market profit.

Senator Santorum's interest was not entirely accidental. A major constituent in Pennsylvania was the founder of a major broadcast center for weather predictions, AccuWeather. The Senator made the case for private providers of weather information.

With the support of my colleagues, we can pass this legislation to modernize the description of the National Weather Service’s roles within the national weather enterprise, so that it reflects today’s reality in which the National Weather Service and the commercial weather industry both play important parts in providing weather products and services to the nation.

Some lawmakers responded with incredulity. A United States Senator wanted to privatize the weather? The nation had just gone through several major hurricanes. Warnings had saved lives. Katrina had claimed a major city just a few months before. And Santorum wanted to restrict the public flow of information? There were businesses who could profit buy selling information on developing weather patterns, but this seemed like an idea doomed to bad ending for a lot of folks.

Supporters pointed out that Santorum's proposed law would allow for exemptions when weather patterns grew into situations of clear and present dangers to the public. When weather patterns developed into hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and other imminent hazards, exceptions could be made. After all, there could be times in which emergency information would not be available for private purchase quickly enough for the market to work. Santorum acknowledged that there was a role for the National Weather Service to play.

All the bill would do would be to protect private companies. It make it against the law for the National Weather Service to providing any information, including marine, public and aviation forecasts, to the public, to schools and colleges, to researchers, to the media, or to emergency management personnel employed by states or local governments, if private businesses could sell similar information for profit.

And severe weather warnings would be an exception.

The bill was generally liked by large corporations like AccuWeather, the Weather Channel, and WeatherBank. Small companies like the Weather Underground opposed it.

In the end, it went pretty much nowhere. You still can see your local weather anchor show satellite images, and charts with fronts and low pressure areas. And if you write and angry letter to your local station about how you just finished shoveling large amounts of partly cloudy from your driveway, you can include the National Weather Service in your complaint. Nobody is perfect, especially regarding the weather. It still is an inexact science.

But lives have been saved. Property has been protected. Rescue efforts have been coordinated in advance. Life has been more convenient. Sometimes they get it real right.

If that is not enough, you can take comfort in knowing that we may soon have a Republican President who will kill such federal intrusions. We can still pay for our satellite photos and five day forecasts. As my tea party friends might point out, free weather is like critical medical care. It is not mentioned in the Constitution.